Hanukah and the IDF

There are many customs in Israel related to the Jewish holidays. Some are identical to those customs followed by Jews around the world – the lighting of the menorah, each night adding a new candle until all 8 candles are lit; eating potato pancakes; spinning the dreidel (a four-sided top with a letter on each side).

But as with many things, there are some things that are uniquely Israel. For example, all over the world, the dreidel has four letters: nun, gimel, heh, shin – the initials for the phrase: A great miracle happened THERE.

Here in Israel, the dreidel has three of the same letters, and one different one: nun, gimel, heh…and paiy – the initials for the phrase: a great miracle happened HERE.

Another custom that is uniquely Israel, one that has already started, is that the stores are filled with sufganiyot – jelly donuts. In this video, a chef is teaching some army cooks how to prepare the jelly donuts. The music is one of the songs that we hear on chanukah, the narration explains how to mix and prepare the donuts…even if you don’t understand Hebrew, it’s still fun to watch the quick preparation…each base throughout Israel will receive donuts in the weeks to come, culminating with the holiday itself.

On each base, the soldiers will gather and light the menorah. I’ll write more about Hanukah soon, but for now, enjoy the presentation:

We are a democratic country; so much so, we allow our enemies into our government and from the podium of our parliament, they have the freedom to call for policies that would destroy us.
Our current enemies, those who pose the most immediate threat lie to our north. This is Hizbollah land, where according to their leader Hassan Nasrallah, “We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death.”
Our enemies lie to the northeast. This is Syria. My sons have spent many months on the Golan Heights, including some tense days waiting to see how the Syrians would react after Israel sent planes to destroy a building widely believed to be the beginnings of a nuclear reactor. My oldest son fought near Gaza to help stop the rockets from being fired against Israel.
Our enemies lie further to the east. This is Iran, led by fanatics who promise that they will do all they can to accomplish in a few minutes more than what Adolf Hitler accomplished in six years of war. The Iranian leadership has made it clear in words and actions that they are after a nuclear bomb and that their goal is to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Believe them.